


Speak

by AutisticWriter



Series: 100 Prompts: Sports Anime Edition [7]
Category: Free!
Genre: Autism, Autism Spectrum, Autistic Ryuugazaki Rei, Established Relationship, Fluff, Fluff and Hurt/Comfort, Gender-Neutral Pronouns, Genderfluid Character, Genderfluid Hazuki Nagisa, Hugs, Other, Prompt Fic, Triple Drabble
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-29
Updated: 2018-06-29
Packaged: 2019-05-30 15:14:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 300
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15099422
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AutisticWriter/pseuds/AutisticWriter
Summary: Rei sometimes struggles with speech, and Nagisa is always there to help.[Prompt 7 – Speak]





	Speak

Rei is normally a chatter box, talking about swimming and homework and everything that interests him. To be honest (not that they would ever admit it to his face), Nagisa knows sometimes people get bored of Rei’s constant speech. But they never get bored; they love to hear their boyfriend talk. Apparently, this thing Rei does is called infodumping, and Nagisa finds it, like everything about Rei, adorable.

But whilst Rei is normally an infodumping chatterbox, he isn’t always this way. When he is tired or stressed, Rei starts to struggle to speak. His speech becomes flatter and quieter, until he struggles to say sentences more than a few seconds long. If he doesn’t get a chance to rest or calm down, he ends up temporarily losing his ability to speak.

Thankfully, everyone in the team has ways around this; they all know sign language in various levels of fluency, and use their phones to text Rei instead of talk to him. It’s just something that happens with Rei (kind of like Haru getting anxious or Nagisa changing their pronouns depending on their gender today), and everyone is used to it.

Still, Rei seems to get so embarrassed when he struggles to speak, and Nagisa just wants to make him smile again. So one day, when Rei wanders into homeroom with his head bowed and his hands in his pockets, Nagisa notices his depressed expression and hurries over.

“Hey, Rei!” they say, being louder and more enthusiastic than normal. “Want a hug?”

Rei doesn’t care about hugging in front of their classmates, but Nagisa wants to be mindful of their sensory issues. So they wait until Rei nods and then carefully wrap him in a hug.

“Are you feeling okay?”

“Not really,” Rei says flatly.

“Well I’m here to help.”


End file.
